Super Affiliate Marketing Blog

So the other day I was shooting the shit on AIM with this kid I met at the Azoogle event a few months ago. His name is Jonathan Volk. Some of you may know him, most don’t. Not being mean about it, just the kid has been in the game for almost a year. He’s actually been very lucky to get to where he is, but he’s also a well bankrolled PPC affiliate. He’s doing around six figs in profit. Whatever, his accomplishments have nothing to do with this post, and I’m not promoting him nor am I going to bitch about him.

The reason I’m writing about him is because we made a little bet. We were talking about WH SEO (white hat search engine optimization for you slow folks), and since I love to gamble, I proposed we try and rank for eachother’s names. So that means, aojon.com will rank for Jonathan Volk or Jon Volk, whichever I guess, and his blog will rank for Jon Fisher.

We also setup some ground rules, such as, neither one of us can ask friends of ours who have blogs to help out with links or posts. Neither of us are allowed to get anyone to do ANY work for us, that includes outsourcing the grunt work of linking or on page work to Indians or whichever outsourcing nation you prefer to work for $1 a day.

We both have until August 10th or 11th at Affiliate Summit East as our end date. Whomever can rank the highest for the other guy’s name wins. He’s actually got a pretty large advantage as we stand now. Well, partly because he already ranks for his name, and I don’t rank for mine. Also, for my name, the competition is pretty low compared to his.

This all started because we were talking about different weird keywords we ranked for, and I pointed out that for about a year or so I was ranking for the keyword “Jon” on the first page, and now I’m ranked #30 or worse I think. I never even tried to rank for it, and I rarely put Jon as my anchor for any linking. But I also recently took back my coveted keyword of “Affiliate Marketing Blog” that I had for nearly a year and a half, until I decided I wouldn’t blog much anymore. I mean look at my last post here. May 6th 2008! And then Shawn Collins took over the #1 spot from me (he blogs ALL the time and deserved it!) and I never blog or do one or two posts a month, and usually just ranting or talking about silly non-relevant shit. So I reclaimed the #1 spot for “Affiliate Marketing Blog” and I also reclaimed the first page for “Affiliate Marketing” (by the way, if any of you whom are ahead of me for this keyword, enjoy it while you can, because I’m taking it back suckers!).

Alright, so where was I. Damn ADD. Ah yes, the bet. The winner will get 20 medium-high TR authority links, in which the loser will make sure the winner gets these. The loser will also make one blog post about how amazing the winner is.

So you see, no cash, just a friendly bet to prove a point… That he sucks at SEO. No, I’m kidding. Although he’s probably not as seasoned as I am, he’s a smart kid, and if he does win, I think most of it will have to do with me and my lack of follow-through and also laziness or just being too busy with other projects.

After this bet is over, I’m going to challenge someone else. No idea who just yet. Maybe an SEO firm? I bet they would shit themselves if I ranked for any of their keywords! But it would also be great fun to prove to the WH SEO community that just because someone is a BH SEO, doesn’t mean they stink at WH SEO. I’m pretty fucking good at WH SEO, just have an issue with waiting so damn long for new sites to pick up ranks, and I also don’t see why we have to follow these stupid rules/guidelines that the engines suggest we follow, when they don’t even follow them themselves. But alas, that is a different argument for a different time.

I’m also planning to have my blog redesigned, layout and all. So hopefully that won’t have a shitty effect for me. But since I refuse to let anyone else make any on page search engine optimization changes on ANY of my sites (some things you just need to do yourself to get it right the first time), I don’t think it will be an issue. Or to play it safe, like a typical WH SEO would, maybe I’ll just wait until after the bet is over.

And with that said.. goodluck to you Mr. Volk, you’re going to need it.

PS - If any of you blogging whores are going to write about this thing, don’t be a dick and only link to one of the blogs, either link to both, or none. Even if you dislike him or me, be a sport, not a douche, ya dig? (that’s not a Digg request btw).